Embrace boredom to boost your creativity

Just try and think back to the last time you were bored. Maybe you were on the train, or maybe you were in a meeting at work. Maybe – just maybe – you can’t even remember the last time you were bored at all.

That's because for many of us, the last time we were ever truly bored was when were kids. Thanks to smartphones, the internet and a 24-hour news cycle, not many of us have time to scratch ourselves, let alone be bored.

"We can’t sit and stare anymore – and even when we are "doing" we have to be doing more – we can’t just watch TV, we have to be doing something else while we do it, to maximise our time (knitting, doodling, exercise and ironing)."

Carrying out boring tasks lets your mind wander

As Mann explains, finding yourself in the situation of tapping your legs and ho-humming with nothing to do can actually have considerable benefits for your mental capabilities.

"I have done the research that shows that when we are bored, we allow our minds to wander and daydream – and this leads to creativity!" says Mann.

The research that Mann refers to was a study carried out by herself and Rebekah Cadman from the University of Central Lancashire in 2013. Together, they enlisted 80 people and had them undergo boredom experiments to analyse whether being "bored" was actually the catalyst for creativity.

In one of their experiments, Mann and Cadman asked just 40 of the 80 participants to carry out a boring task (like copying numbers out of a telephone book) for 15 minutes.

Straight after, all of the participants – both the group who copied numbers and the group who did nothing – were then given two polystyrene cups, and asked to come up with as many different uses for them as they could.

Somewhat surprisingly, the group who had spent a solid 15 minutes copying down phone numbers were actually more creative than those who hadn't – proving the theory that boredom really can rev up your creative juices.

As Mann speculates, this is because the group of people carrying out passive, non-thinking tasks are actually allowing their brain to wander safely.

Because we are more likely to daydream when performing mundane tasks, we're essentially allowing our creative juices to flow by taking part in an activity that's so devoid of any real thinking.

It's not all fun in the playground however, because as other publications have pointed out, as fun as these activities used to be when you were a kid, as an adult they can get a little…dreary.

But that doesn’t mean you should throw your adult-sized colouring-in book into your adult-sized bin, as Mann believes many of these new-age mindfulness trends are essentially "scheduled" periods of boredom.

"The benefit of adult colouring and other mindfulness tasks (in my view) is that it allows your mind to wander in a "safe" way," says Mann.

"A lot of people will only give themselves permission to do "nothing" if they feel they are actually doing something!"

Having no time to be bored is a modern problem

In years gone by, when people knew they were in for a long train or bus journey, they would pack their favourite book or newspaper and settle in for the long haul. If you got bored, well, tough luck – there was nobody to tweet you their summary of a novel in 140 characters.

In contrast, these days we are more likely to take every spare second of down-time we have to annihilate our latest high score on Candy Crush Saga than we are to simply enjoy the view – and our critical dose of "bored" time is being eroded because of it.

"The idea that many of us have lost our ability to be bored is new for sure!" says Mann.

"We never really had it to lose a few generations ago – we were too busy surviving."

"Once the concept of leisure time came in (with working hour's directives and labour saving devices), boredom came along with it – and now we are attempting to lose that boredom."

Mann's top tips to boost your own boredom

It may seem counter-intuitive, but allowing yourself time to do nothing at all has become increasingly important in our 24/7 digital lives.

So if you really want to boost your creativity, you've got to allow your brain some passive downtime to let it wander wherever it would like to – and the first step involves relegating your mobile phone to your bag.

"Try to bring some short bursts of downtime into your life. Go for a walk. Switch off to switch on – have digital detox days or even hours," recommends Mann.

"Don’t turn to your phone whilst waiting in the playground or at the station. Let your mind wander! Embrace downtime and boredom!"